Wikipedia
Phalsbourg is a commune in the Moselle department in Alsace-Champagne-Ardenne-Lorraine in north-eastern France, with a population of about 5,000.
It lies high on the west slopes of the Vosges, northwest of Strasbourg by rail. In 1911, it contained an Evangelical and a Roman Catholic church, a synagogue and a teachers' seminary. Its industries then included the manufacture of gloves, straw hats and liqueurs, and quarrying.
The area of the city of Phalsbourg, originally Pfalzburg, was originally part of the principality of Lützelstein/Petite Pierre, under the overlordship of Luxemburg/ Luxembourg, then the bishops of Metz and of Strassburg/ Strasbourg, before coming under the Dukes of Pfalz-Veldenz, all within the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. In 1570, Duke Georg Johann I of Pfalz-Veldenz founded the town of Pfalzburg as a refuge for Reformed Protestants kicked out of the Duchy of Lothringen/ Lorraine, and as an administrative center of his holdings. But the cost forced him to sell the city and the surrounding district of Einarzhausen between 1583 1590 to Lothringen, whose territory surrounded most of the area. In 1608, his successor Georg Gustav of Pfalz-Veldenz founded nearby Lixheim for Reformed refugees, but was also forced to sell the new town in 1623 to Lothringen.
From 1629 to 1660, Pfalzburg and Lixheim were combined as the Principality of Pfalzburg, for duchess Henriette of Lothringen (1605-1660) and her three successive husbands. The principality was acknowledged by Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II in 1629. After the death of Henriette, the principality returned to Lorraine. But the next year, Lorraine had to cede it to France in the Treaty of Vincennes in 1661, at a time when most of Lothringen was occupied by French troops since 1634.
The famous French military engineer Vauban reconstructed the town's fortifications in 1680. The town was of military importance as commanding one of the passes of the Vosges. The fortifications of Pfalzburg resisted the Allies in 1814 and 1815, and the Germans for four months under the commander Taillant in 1870, but they were taken on 12 December of that year, and have since been razed. The town was German again from 1871 to 1918, under its old name of Pfalzburg.
The United States Air Forces in Europe built an air base near the city in 1953. The base was returned in 1967 to the French government, which redesignated it as Camp de la Horie. The base is currently used by the French military's 1er Régiment d'Hélicoptères de Combat.
The town is home to the annual Erckmann-Chatrian summer festival. It is also the birthplace of Georges Mouton.